Vito Operating Model & Start-Up Ramp Up (SURU)

In 2009, the Vito field was discovered in more than 4,000 ft of water approximately 150 miles offshore from New Orleans, Louisiana. The project produces from reservoirs nearly 30,000 feet below sea level. This paper outlines the approach taken to develop the Vito facilities operating model (Operating Model) and prepare for start-up and ramp-up. This paper is part of a Vito Project series at OTC 2023, and the other papers are listed in the references. In 2015 the project faced significant financial hurdles and went through a refresh of the concept design to reduce cost and simplify while maintaining safety as a top priority. This re-design resulted in reduced redundancy and operational flexibility including reducing host personnel on board (POB) capacity to 60 personnel. To prepare to start-up and operate the facility with this simplified design, a proactive approach was adopted across four key areas: Operating Model, maintenance strategy, digital building blocks, and start-up ramp-up (SURU) planning. An Operating Model was developed to enable efficient execution of maintenance and operations activities with the reduced POB. This model leverages multiskilling of onsite personnel and enabling digital technologies. The limited POB necessitated development of a maintenance strategy that is both lean and comprehensive with high utilization of the base crew. With local performance standards as the foundation of the strategy, a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) study was performed to validate and further optimize the defined strategy, which relies heavily on asst specific maintenance tasks and onshore sparing due to minimal redundancy and space on host for spares. Digital Twin technology has been leveraged to create a virtual mirror image of the Vito facility that is a central repository of equipment data and documentation. This enables virtual planning of work which reduces POB needs by providing the ability to perform walkdowns, take measurements and identify access issues without being on site. Augmented reality technology supplements this by streaming the viewpoint of offshore staff directly to onshore teams to perform troubleshooting, diagnose issues, and inspect without requiring physical presence. To manage well start-up and to optimize long term recovery, a start-up ramp-up model was implemented with a focus on proactive actions to optimize start-up. This led to long term lease of onshore caverns to eliminate requirements for temporary unloading equipment during start-up. A phased commissioning and start-up plan was developed with gas buyback brought on ahead of well start-up to pressure up vessels and commission compressors. Additionally, a real time simulator was built to test procedures, train personnel and walkthrough the start-up plan.